


and oh, sing songs to the heroes of old (remember that myths were once bodies)

by mouseymightymarvellous



Series: cicadas chirping in the dark and moths around the porch light (you come home) [3]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Angst, Gen, Grief, Sakura as Hokage 2kforever, crosspost, the author's complicated feelings about team 7
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-16
Updated: 2019-09-16
Packaged: 2020-10-19 16:00:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20659886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mouseymightymarvellous/pseuds/mouseymightymarvellous
Summary: In the end, always, is Sakura.It is what she learned from her teachers. Survival, and the way grief is loyal as nothing else in this life is.





	and oh, sing songs to the heroes of old (remember that myths were once bodies)

Sakura stands sentinel at the Memorial Stone during the night: a dark pillar holding up the sky.

They call her the Widow.

(She never wanted to be Hokage. It was never her dream.

But, well.

Kakashi-sensei never taught her any ninjutsu, but he taught her that the mission was not the most important part of being ninja, that you choose your teammates over anything else every time, that you honour their dreams even when they’re dead, that you live on despite the loss—a cursed half life—and you hate yourself for it. (He never was a very good teacher.))

The bingo books, the old editions, have her hair colour listed as pink. The Academy students are skeptical. No one has pink hair. Maybe she used to dye it?

(It’s the healing that takes the colour from her.

She drains herself dry of chakra trying to heal the hole punched through Sai’s sternum, and then pushes further, pulling on her life force. Ino and Shikamaru tear her away from the corpse, and she doesn’t even have the energy to cry. Her body never fully recovers. Her heart doesn’t even try; the last of her boys are dead.

Her hair is bleached bone white. Her eyes fade to milky blue.)

They were supposed to be the second coming of the Sannin. They were supposed to surpass their teachers and change the world.

Instead, Sasuke is ashes on the wind, a procession of graves and a story of shattered hearts.

Instead, Naruto is a statue in a square. The artist carved him solemn. No one can remember the sound of his laughter.

Instead, Sakura is a faded pillar holding up too many legacies, holding up a village, holding up the sky.

They call her the Widow.

(She never thought it would end this way.)

(There is no other way it could have.)


End file.
